We have an 8 year old female Malamute named Roxi who started having seizures about a year ago. The first one was incredibly frightening to watch (the all are actually) and we raced her down to the vet once it was over and he ran all the tests. After her blood work we placed her back in the car and as we were driving away she had another. Now to put this into perspective, she is 90lbs and these seizures are quite violent, so we turned around and the vet came out to the car with a tec and witnessed the entire event. Once it was over she was taken in and held for 48 hrs for observation.

During observation she had one seizure but of very short duration. Once the blood work was back and all checked out fine we met with the vet to discuss options. We were advised that we could send her to Saskatoon for an MRI (we live in Winnipeg) but that even if she had a lesion the treatment would be the same as if she had epilepsy, as an operation would probably be more harmful than not seeing that she was considered geriatric.

Currently she is on Phenobarbital (240mg per day) and will be until the levels in her blood are at a certain level and the vet plans to place her on another drug and slowly take her off the Pheno, as Pheno is toxic.

Since her first set of seizures Roxi has had four more grandmal seizures, the latest two being last night (she always gets them in her sleep and never when awake).

Whatís frustrating about this is, like most people, we are looking for answers and a permanent solution to the problem. Fact is, we donít think there is and this is something that we have to live with and are willing to. We have heard of others having their dog put down and it frustrates us when we hear that, as they are doing it not for the dog (they say they are) but for themselves because this is a very scary and tough thing to deal with, but honestly thatís what you get when you have pets, it is a responsibility, they are truly family.

What we have written here is no solution to your or anyone elseís problem but we just wanted to let you and others know that you are not alone. We have spent many sleepless nights waiting for Roxi to have another seizure and suffered with anxiety over this issue, but knowing we are not alone helps some.